Why Did The Constitution Guard Against Tyranny

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How Did the Constitution Guard Against Tyranny? “The accumulation of all powers… in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many is the very definition of tyranny.”(background essay) America was a very young nation and had just fought and gained freedom from England. In 1787 thirteen states sent a total of 55 delegates to represent. They had decided as a nation that their standing government was not strong enough and was not doing its job. The new nation needed a strong government but the last thing they wanted was another form of tyranny, or a group or one person that has more power over another. The four main factors in the new constitution that would guard against tyranny was and is federalism, separation of power, checks and balances, …show more content…
Federalism is the power given to the central and state governments. Because both the central and state governments have overlapping power with each other and within their own groups they have to go through lots of stages. In James Madison's words, “In the compound republic of America the power surrendered by the people is first between 2 distinct governments and portion allotted to each subdivided among distinct and separate departments… the different departs control each other. Federalism is one of the key factors to guarding against tyranny because both branches of government in state and federal stages. The separation of powers another example of a way the constitution protects against tyranny. Separation of powers is the idea that there are three different groups in one government; Executive, Legislative, and Judiciary. “The accumulation of all powers, legislative executive and judicial in the the hand whether in a few or many… is the very definition of tyranny. Liberty requires that the three great department of power should be separate and distinct.” Separation does not allow one group to have too much power because the power is shared within the three